Blowing Smoke In Drug War

August 11, 1985|By Yellow

Never mind that it hardly put a dent in the drug problem. Drug agents nationwide went on a much ballyhooed search-and-destroy mission last week for marijuana. Accompanied by Attorney General Edwin Meese, the agents burned thousands of plants and made hundreds of arrests. In Florida, agents arrested 11 people and uprooted about 3,500 plants.

The problem: You don't win wars with a one-week, highly publicized skirmish. Indeed, these short sprints seem to be the problem lately when it comes to drugs. Too many people are going for the publicity, and no one is organizing a coherent plan.

While Mr. Meese was out looking at marijuana, Florida Sen. Paula Hawkins was pushing to get $350,000 in tax dollars to form an international task force to talk about the drug problem. The committee would have room for seven U.S. senators. What would it do? Nothing except give lawmakers TV time. Better the money go for more drug agents, as drugs come into this country in record numbers and at record low prices.

Mr. Meese and Sen. Hawkins would be better off spending their time studying recent reports from the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm. It has found serious problems in the war against drugs.

This year it looked at the National Narcotics Border Interdiction System. That's a fancy name for a program that began three years ago in Miami to nab drugs at the border as part of Vice President George Bush's task force on drugs. Now the program has been extended to five other cities. The idea was to get the U.S. Customs Service, the military, the Coast Guard, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other police agencies together to stop the drug flow.

But the program is a flop, says GAO. It has stopped very few drugs at the borders. The system isn't doing such a bad job in Miami because that city has added such a vast system of prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officials that are necessary for battling drugs. The problems came in trying to expand it to the other areas that aren't so prepared. The El Paso, Texas, office, for instance, stopped only three planes last year. Furthermore, GAO investigators found that many of the seizures were attributed to just plain luck.

One of the problems? This war on drugs doesn't have a general. A lot of people are running around with their own ideas about how to reduce the flow of drugs, but no one is in charge. Around the country, for example, the narcotics interdiction operations are headed by different agencies. That's incredibly confusing. In some states, Customs Service officials head the effort, in other states it's the Coast Guard, others the DEA. Who's in charge?

These latest marijuana raids organized by the attorney general are only more examples of poor coordination in this war. Local police already eradicate marijuana fields. In Florida so far this year police have seized almost 43,000 plants in such raids and made 159 arrests.

The GAO report did offer one idea for battling the drug war more effectively. It suggested that the federal government create a Cabinet-level position to coordinate it. Well, there already is a Cabinet-level person who should be doing that: Attorney General Edwin Meese.

He doesn't have control over the military and Customs Service, but Mr. Meese can use his power and influence to coordinate a meaningful war on drugs. And that means doing more than watching police burn marijuana plants.